MANILA, Philippines - Police officers linked to the alleged torture of a criminal suspect in Tondo, Manila are facing possible criminal and administrative charges, the chief of the National Capital Region Police Office said Wednesday.

Director Leocadio Santiago, NCRPO chief, said he has already ordered the relief of Sr. Inspector Joselito Binayug and his subordinates stationed at the Asuncion police precinct following reports of their alleged involvement in the supposed torture of the suspect.

The abuse was captured in a cellphone video, which was shown to ABS-CBN News. (Click here for video.)

"We are holding Binayug responsible. We will be filing a case against Binayug for dereliction of duty but we want something heavier,” Santiago said.

"There's no place for policemen like that in the police force," he added.

The NCRPO chief said the entire police unit under Binayug will be assigned to a regional special training unit while undergoing investigation.

He said the NCRPO is forming an investigative body that will probe the alleged torture incident and determine the appropriate charges against the perpetrators.

"Magkaroon po sana ng pagkakataon na yung aming investigating at legal officer to get pertinent data para di lang dismissal or administrative ang kaso ng may kagagawan," he said.

ABS-CBN was shown a copy of the torture video, which was shared by a certain "Emil." Emil said he got the cellphone video from a friend who has gone into hiding.

The video showed a naked man in a fetal position on the floor of an alleged police precinct, his genitals supposedly bound with a rope.

Another man wearing a white shirt and shorts is then seen whipping the victim's face and torso with a rope while heaping curses on him. "Dito bawal ang snatcher ha," the man said.

The man is also seen ordering the victim to remove his hands from his genitals while pulling the rope, making the victim cry out in pain.

Emil said the victim was a notorious criminal who was being tortured to own up to a hold-up incident. He said the torturer is allegedly the chief of a police community precinct in Asuncion, Tondo, Manila.

He claimed police usually torture suspected criminals, and sometimes even kill them.

Indifference

A Commission on Human Rights official, meanwhile, said she was alarmed over the seeming indifference of precinct personnel during the torture incident. The cellphone video showed at least one police officer in uniform texting on his cellphone while the alleged torture was ongoing.

"The people who were watching, they're impassive not horrified. Sanay sila. And this raises the question: how often is this done? Is this the regular process? Sanay sila. They think nothing is wrong, and under the Anti-Torture Act they are also criminally liable," CHR Commissioner Coco Quisumbing told ANC's "Headstart."

Quisumbing said the CHR has received numerous complaints of human rights abuses allegedly committed by police and military authorities including the arrest of 43 health workers in Morong, Rizal in February and the detention of Fil-American activist Melissa Roxas last year.

In both cases, military and police officials said the people arrested had links to the communist New People's Army.

The CHR official said she has submitted a report to the United Nations Committee on Human Rights that documented more than a hundred torture cases, not including extrajudicial killings, involuntary disappearances and cases of violence against women and children.

Quisumbing said she and other nongovernment organizations hope to meet with President Benigno Aquino III on September 1 to discuss unsolved cases of enforced disappearances in the country.

"Disappearances and torture go hand-in-hand. If you've disappeared, it's for a certain reason --either to punish you or get information, and the way they do it is by torture," she said.

Santiago welcomed the CHR investigation, saying that the police will not tolerate such abusive acts among its ranks.

"Yung ganitong behavior ng kapulisan dapat maalis sa buong [Philippine National Police]. Kahit anong technology ang ipasok natin, kung ang depekto ay yung gagamit noon, wala rin," Santiago said.

He added the police leadership is serious about investigating other cases of abuse allegedly committed by the police.

"The police is serious about cleaning its ranks," he said.